December 21, 1875

Our cat story today appears in the 1850 volume, Wanderings of a Pilgrim, in Search of the Picturesque, During Four-and-twenty Years in the East: With Revelations of Life in the Zenāna.

The author, the wife of an East india Company official, is Fanny Parks (December 8, 1794 to December 21, 1875). The setting is northern India, near an ancient town named Kannauj. The reference to a Stanhope below, is to a kind of buggy. The author describes a chaotic scene on a crowded road.

'On reaching the Stanhope,... the horse gave some annoyance while being put into harness, when once in, away he went pulling at a fearful rate through roads half way up the leg in sand, full of great holes, and so crowded with elephants, camels, artillery cavalry, and infantry, and all the camp followers, it was scarcely possible to pass through such a dense crowd, and in many places it was impossible to see beyond your horse's head from the excessive dust. Imagine a camp of 11,000 men, all marching on the road, and such a road. Away rushed the horse in the Stanhope and had not the harness been strong and the reins English, it would have been all over with us. I saw a beautiful Persian kitten on an Arab's shoulder; he was marching with a long string of camels, carrying grapes, apples, dates, and Tusar cloth for sale from Cabul. Perched on each camel were one or two Persian cats. The pretty, tortoise shell kitten, with its remarkably long hair, and bushy tail, caught my eye; its colours were so brilliant. The Arab ran up to the Stanhope, holding forth the kitten; we checked the impetuous horse for an instant, and I seized the pretty little creature; the check rendered the horse still more violent -- away he sprang, and off he set at full speed through the encampment which we had just reached. The Arab, thinking I had purposely stolen his kitten, ran after the buggy at full speed, shouting as he passed Lord Auckland's tents. ... Mercy, mercy, sir, mercy... The faster the horse rushed on, the faster followed the shouting Arab, until on arriving at my own tents, the former stopped of his own accord, and the breathless Arab came up. He asked ten rupees for his kitten but at length, with well feigned reluctance, accepted five, declaring it was worth twenty. Who was ever before the happy possessor of a tortoise shell Persian cat. The man departed ....'


Frances Susanna Parks, nee Archer (1794–1875), was, was, according to her Oxford 

Dictionary of National Biography, born 'at Conwy in north Wales, the daughter of Captain William Archer, formerly of the 16th lancers, and his wife, Ann, daughter of William Goodhew. The family later moved to Lymington in Hampshire, where on 25 March 1822 she married Charles Crawford Parks (1797/8–1854), a civil servant in the East India Company. Her elder sister Anne Augustine married a clergyman, Henry Allen, and lived in south India during the early years of Fanny's residence in the country.

Fanny and Charles Parks sailed for Calcutta in June 1822, finally leaving India in August 1845. Her account of her years in India, ...[was] largely based on the journal which she kept for her mother... The focus of the book was India, its people, and their culture. .....
......Fanny Parks's book, which was extensively illustrated with drawings by herself, her friends, and Indian artists, was lavishly produced and won wide acclaim. Reviewers noted the accuracy, detail, and range of observation—as well as the unusual character of the authoress. ....